Page 177 of The Bone Code
Second, certain acronyms recurred throughout.mRNA. CRISPR.
The same acronyms recorded by Melanie Chalmers in 2002.
Melanie had been interested in vaccine production. So had her daughter Lena, fifteen years later.
My appalling theory elbowed toward my forebrain.
Impossible.
I continued deciphering the girlish scrawl. Spotted names. InovoVax. Arlo Murray. GeneFree. Sullie Huger.
Not surprising that the girls knew of Murray and InovoVax. Lena had visited the director at the pharmaceutical plant in Laval. Ditto for Huger. Lena and Harmony had interviewed him at his office on James Island.
I plowed on. Spotted words and phrases that hadn’t appeared in Melanie’s notes.
Capnocytophaga canimorsus TLR4.
The theory finger-tapped a cerebral mic.
Could I actually be right? Could any human really be that evil?
I booted my laptop, hopped online, and went to the Human Gene Database.
The TLR4 gene codes for a protein that is a member of the toll-like receptor family.
The more I read, the more the theory demanded attention.
TLRs play an important role in pathogen recognition and in the activation of immunity against infectious agents.
God almighty!
I went to the bathroom for a drink of cold water. Checked Birdie. Returned to Vislosky’s photocopy.
Six lines from the bottom, there it was. Confirmation in two short paragraphs.
“Holy freakin’ shit!” Grabbing my mobile.
Bird raised his lids to half-mast. A long, bleary look, then he lowered them.
“You’re right, Bird.” Forcing myself calm. “We both know Ryan’s motto. Cautious, composed, completely cognizant.”
After tossing my phone onto the comforter, I inserted Vislosky’s thumb drive into the USB port. The tiny device contained a single file.Chalmervideo.mpv.
I downloaded then dragged the MPV file into my File Viewer app.
Deep breath.
It was clear the opening portion had not been salvaged. The action started in mid-scene.
My first thought was that Lizzie Griesser’s facial approximation had been remarkably accurate. The woman speaking had large green eyes, a long, narrow nose, and a tapering jaw. But the phenotype sketch hadn’t captured how striking Melanie was. Only an overly prominent chin had kept her from being truly beautiful.
My second thought was that the setup looked like your typical hostage video. Melanie sat squarely facing the camera. She wore no makeup, and her hair was knotted on top of her head. There was nothing behind her but bare wall.
“—this is working now. Hopefully take three is the winner. I’m not sure if this part recorded on my first try, but it’s January 15, 2002. My name is Melanie Chalmers.”
She spoke with proper Parisian grammar and an American, not Quebecois, accent. What I think of as textbook French. Her voice was somber, her expression grim.
“I’m living in Laval, Quebec, under the alias Mélanie Chalamet. I’m employed—”
